You are here

Risk and Consumer Freedom

The growth of the nanny state has been unprecedented in recent years as myriad, seemingly minor regulations—ranging from beverage taxes and bake-sale bans to plastic bag taxes and bans—have together come to have large impact on our freedoms. The result isn’t a safer, more secure world as government advocates suggest; it’s a poorer, less fair one with diminished freedom. CEI’s nanny state project pushes back on these trends by highlighting the impacts of these regulations and advancing policies to reverse them.

While the public health goals of protecting consumers from possibly harmful vaping products and preventing kids from becoming addicted to nicotine are laudable goals, this heavy-handed approach will only likely push people—adults and teens alike—back toward far more harmful tobacco products.